What are some things you will do – policies you will implement, campaigns you will run, etc. – that will help improve Singapore society? Why?
Tag - musings
Sounds familiar, though it is a story that is not entirely of my telling.
The rule is that when you have been absent from school, you have to bring a letter of excuse. He knows his mother’s standard letter by heart: “Please excuse John’s absence yesterday. He was suffering from a bad cold, and I thought it advisable for him to stay in bed. Yours faithfully.” He hands in these letters, which his mother writes as lies and which are read as lies, with an apprehensive heart.
When at the end of the year he counts the days he has missed, they come to almost one in three. Yet he still comes first in class. The conclusion he draws is that what goes on in the classroom is of no importance. He can always catch up at home. If he had his way, he would stay away from school all year, making an appearance only to write the examinations.
Nothing his teachers say is not already written in the textbook. He does not look down on them for that, nor do the other boys. In fact, he does not like it when, now and then, a teacher’s ignorance is exposed.
— Boyhood by J.M. Coetzee, pp. 107 – 108.
I was quite curious about how and why there was a need for a 13th month payment after reading this article. So I Googled for some answers, and found a few posts on this topic.
Read them first, bad English and all, before coming back here:
Actually, they all say the same thing (with some variations) so the summary here:
- We are paid according to the British system of accounting i.e. based on 28 days of work (one week has seven days; therefore four weeks has 28 days).
- Since our salary comes in monthly, we have 12 payments in one year.
- But one year has 52 weeks. 52 divided by four is 13.
- So the 13th month is something that is entitled to us. However, we have been conditioned into believing that it’s a ‘bonus’.
Hmmm. Any thoughts on this from anyone?